zacharias on 11/11/2013 at 14:13
So I'm finding myself getting out quite a few comic books from the library recently. Possibly to escape real life..but that's another thread. But the problem is after going through some of the accepted classics there's a lot there..and..quite a bit of it is obviously crap. So I need some help sorting the wheat from the chaff. But first here's what I have gone through in the last few months:
Watchmen: (Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons.) So I thought the Watchmen movie was great. Time to check out the book. And it's fucking A, just as everyone says. My favourite bit of this is actually the Tales from the Black Freighter comic-within-a-comic. Gas-bloated corpses, murders, insanity, shark attacks (the ‘raw shark' - Rorsharch tie-in moment was pure brilliance). Anyway it's bleak as hell - and I loved it for that. And the main Watchmen comic is great too. I have problems with the ending, but..that's a pretty minor quibble all in all.
From Hell: (Alan Moore.) Pretty huge; fascinating at times. But surely it reveals the Ripper too soon. I was expecting more mystery or a multiple interpretation type thing. Also the ending is somewhat spoiled if you've seen the movie. I did not particularly like the art. It's distinctive but not that well done imo. I guess it's quite a unique look though.
Batman: A Death in the Family. (Starlin/Aparo). This was a disappointment. The Joker steals a nuke and Bats chases him about. Robin tries to find his mother and dies at the end. It's not that emotional or anything though.
Swamp Thing original run 84-87 (Moore Bisette Totleben reprints): Read Books 2 and 6 so far. This is very good stuff indeed. Great mix of horror, love story, altered states, general Moore weirdness. I'd give this a big recommendation.
Top Ten (Alan Moore): Not sure which volume this was. This is ‘a hat on a hat' if you know what I mean (see the South Park Oprah/Towelie episode commentary). Outlandish weirdness piled atop outlandish weirdness, with precious few relatable down to earth bits. Not very successful in my view.
Swamp Thing: Raise them Bones and Family Tree (Scott Snyder etc.) 2012 or so reboot of Swamp Thing. Pretty damn entertaining I must say. I preferred the first book. Not sure if it's up there with the Moore stuff but it's a lot of fun to read. Amongst other things, a bubble boy leads zombie pigs to attack our hero. What's not to like?
Batman: Year One (Miller/Mazuchelli) Pretty damn excellent. The first Nolan film ‘borrowed' a hell of a lot from this. Excellent art style too. I also like that Batman makes lots of mistakes, feels more realistic.
Batman: the Dark Knight: Golden Dawn (David Finch) Excellent art (if a bit too Jim Lee-ish; I don't really care for Batman drawn like a tank) but the story was not my cup of tea at all. Lots of demons knocking about - doesn't belong in a batman comic imo.
And two old ones which I own:
Batman: Year Two (Mike W. Barr/Alan Davis/Todd McFarlane) Pretty great 4 part series where Batman must take on the Reaper, a murderous vigilante from Gotham's past who has resurfaced. The first chapter is the best imo (featuring Alan Davis art), the later chapters Todd McFarlane does the penciling who I don't like anywhere near as much. Still a good read overall though.
Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (Marv Wolfman/George Perez) This ones a cracker imo. Can't say too much about the story for spoilers sake, but it's a great action packed, suspenseful story. Highly recommended.
One day I will get around to reading classics such as Akira and Batman: the Dark Knight Returns, when time allows.
Also, that's mostly all DC. I have nothing against Marvel, honest, guv..
Further Recommendations?
Volitions Advocate on 11/11/2013 at 18:50
Sandman is is a staple. I've not finished all of the volumes but it's very good.
I've been reading Elephantmen recently and I really enjoy it. (
http://www.hipflask.com/)
WingedKagouti on 11/11/2013 at 19:55
Quote Posted by zacharias
Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (Marv Wolfman/George Perez) This ones a cracker imo. Can’t say too much about the story for spoilers sake, but it’s a great action packed, suspenseful story. Highly recommended.
The Wolfman/Perez run on the New Teen Titans was great, it did of course have some low points, but overall their work on the series was great. You should go back and find the earlier issues of that series (The Judas Contract was more or less the finale of their run iirc).
june gloom on 11/11/2013 at 23:25
Did someone page me?
There's a fundamental problem with getting into comic books, one of the barriers to entry -- some of the very best stories are part of the on-goings and as such have references to events prior. The only really rewarding way to read these is to get into the on-goings themselves, which can be difficult to do legally as huge swaths are out of print, and of course you'd be going through bad runs as well as good (the Kelly Jones/Doug Moench Batman run is excruciating, especially towards the end.) In DC's case, it gets worse in the 2000s as the readable comics really start to multiply (DC had some really good years starting in the late 90s... but things started to decline when Dan Didio took over; the PR foulups we're seeing now is the result of Dan Didio and Jim Lee doing their level best to drive the company into the ground.)
That being said... I've just finished up 25 years (1986-2011) of DC continuity (a continuity that is effectively closed now) and while I didn't read everything (not even close to it early on, I didn't start getting really adventurous until after Our Worlds At War) I can tell you there's some real quality stuff out there that makes such a daunting project worthwhile.
The New Earth continuity (the one that just ended a couple years ago) has three kinds of stories to it, each one defined by where they're placed, chronologically, around Crisis On Infinite Earths. Wolfman's epic of Universal Destruction comes off a little dated now, but it is still a very, very important story that has far-reaching effects on the DCU. Up to the time that COIE was released, DC continuity was something of a serious mess, largely because of the Silver Age (which began in 1956 with the introduction of a new Flash, Barry Allen.) COIE was written with the intent of cleaning up some of the myriad alternate universes and forgotten threads. Most of them were destroyed outright, five were compressed into one (so a lot of people from Earth-Two were folded into the primary universe) and the result was called New Earth.
The three kinds of stories are basically as follows: Written pre-Crisis, still in at least partial continuity (a few Batman stories, i.e. most of The Saga of Ra's Al Ghul; Green Arrow/Green Lantern: Hard Traveling Heroes; many period-related stories such as that pertaining to the Old West, WWII, et cetera, as well as most of the Justice Society of America's history); written post-Crisis, set pre-Crisis (Most "origin" stories for guys like Batman and Superman qualify, no matter how many times they change, and there are several "early years" stories, mostly Batman related due to not one but two anthology series); written post-Crisis, set post-Crisis (that is, current continuity.)
I don't have time to further discuss the DCU and list some recommendations, so this will have to stand until I can more completely tackle the subject.
zacharias on 12/11/2013 at 03:16
Thanks for the replies guys.
Dethtoll, thanks for an in-depth reply. But your knowledge of comics is obviously quite a bit beyond mine so a fair bit of that is perhaps over my head. But yeah one of the essential problems is so much is out of print. My city library is pretty good but I guess most of the stuff I've listed is all collected edition reprints of classic runs, which is then mixed in with contemporary comics, the quality of which varies wildly (some of the art is absolute junk).
(I don't mind paying for a comic at all, has to be a good one though). Onto amazon i guess after researching on wikipedia.
I remember reading a bit of Spiderman in the 80s in the US (had a year there when my dad was researching his PhD), that was the Green Goblin/Scorpion/Crime Master run..and it was great. But that was a 65 or something original (Ditko?) then reprinted in the 80s. It's hard to keep track of this stuff.
Gryzemuis on 12/11/2013 at 15:03
Comic Book Discussion.
As we know,
1) all comic books are about superheroes
2) all comic books are made by Americans.
Too bad nobody else in the whole wide world knows how to make comics. I wonder what those comic books would be like, if the Belgians or the French would try to make some.
zacharias on 12/11/2013 at 15:19
Jesus. For the record, I think Asterix is kickass..Tintin I never really got into though. How about some recommendations then?
N'Al on 12/11/2013 at 16:08
Quote Posted by Gryzemuis
Comic Book Discussion.
As we know,
1) all comic books are about superheroes
2) all comic books are made by Americans.
Too bad nobody else in the whole wide world knows how to make comics. I wonder what those comic books would be like, if the Belgians or the French would try to make some.
You are a moron.
Thirith on 12/11/2013 at 16:17
Quote Posted by zacharias
From Hell: (Alan Moore.) Pretty huge; fascinating at times.
But surely it reveals the Ripper too soon.I'm sorry, but if you think this then you either need to read the book again (including the second Appendix, which is an integral part of
From Hell) or read something else altogether, or possibly watch the film instead.
From Hell is very explicitly *not* about figuring out who the Ripper was. It's about murder as ritual, institutionalised violence against women, our fascination with serial killers and many other things, but it was never the book's intention to be a whodunnit.
zacharias on 12/11/2013 at 16:30
eh, I think you've misunderstood me. Of course it's not meaning to be factual, but that character is carrying out the murders, whether by order or whatever and is apparent quite early. Just thought there would be more mystery or a twist to it. Ah it's a bit hazy in my memory anyway, was a few months back.
